Monday, 31 October 2016

It's Halloween! Finally, my favourite time of year is upon us. However, two of my least favourite seasons are not. Season ten though, you alright.

Image via Fox

I don’t like season eight. I like
it more than season nine, but it just wasn’t the same. Even when Mulder came
back; the show lost its spark somehow. But that all changed when ‘Vienen’ came
along. It managed to hearken back to the show’s previous (and most successful)
mythology arc before the stupid ‘super solider’ thing.

‘Vienen’ gave us a glimpse to the
old Mulder, who defied protocol (i.e. orders to stay away from the X-Files) and
finds himself stranded on a quarantined oil rig with Doggett (Robert Patrick).
Much to Scully’s dismay, even she agrees that for Mulder to be stranded on
anything, this oil rig is lucky to have him there to help Doggett figure out
what the hell is going on:

SCULLY: (Worried) Mulder.

MULDER: You need me out here Scully,
you know that better than anyone.

SCULLY: I’d hate to say as of this morning
I’d have to agree.

And even though Carter decided to
make both the conception and paternity of Mulder and Scully’s child a mystery,
this was one of the first episodes to give a somewhat conformation that Mulder
is indeed the father (like there was any doubt anyway) with the fantastic line:
“When he’s old enough, tell the kid I went down swinging.”

Image via Fox

The last monster-of-the-week
episode to feature Mulder (until season ten), ‘Alone’ features Doggett paired
with a new partner once Scully goes on maternity leave. This new partner is an
enthusiastic young agent Leyla Harrison who is a super-fan in regards to the
X-Files, and to Mulder and Scully. Once Doggett and Harrison investigate a
mysterious man and go missing, it’s up to Mulder to find them.

As much as I love seeing Mulder
back trying to solve a mystery…it just isn’t the same. You can tell that
Duchovny doesn’t have the same spark for the character that he usually does;
only whenever he has scenes with Scully at the beginning and end of the
episode. I can barely remember what actually happens in regards to what Doggett
and Harrison are investigating.

The best aspect of this episode
is obviously Mulder and Scully’s relationship, and them ultimately dealing with
the arrival of their child. From Mulder taking Scully to a Lamaze class and
professing that since he has no work he’s watching a lot of Opera, to the duo
reminiscing (hilariously) about how they managed to get back from Antarctica in
Fight the Future to Harrison. Just
the two of them shows what The X-Files is;
it’s Mulder and Scully.

Image via Fox

Again, ‘Essence’ and ‘Existence’
are two of my favourites not for the mythology, but for the inclusion of both
Mulder and Scully rather than solely just Doggett and Reyes or Scully, Doggett
and Reyes. It again follows the newly found arc of super soldiers that I still don’t
understand, and also deals with the birth of Mulder and Scully’s son, William.

The two-parter is extremely
action packed, which is welcomed; especially for two episodes that are ending
the Mulder and Scully era of The X-Files (or
in my eyes, The X-Files as a whole)
in an ending that should have been the ending of the series.

As are many other fans of the
show, I’m so bitter about this season. The way it ends should have been the end
of the series, rather than putting Scully through more hell in season nine and
Carter trying to replace Mulder and Scully with Doggett and Reyes; which
obviously didn’t work.

What annoys me more is that it
pains me to actually write about these episodes. There just isn’t any X-Files spark within them unless there
are the rarity of scenes in which Mulder and Scully are together. At least we
were given the ending that we deserved here; Mulder and Scully embracing each
other with their son in the middle, exchanging a long deserved passionate kiss.
If only that little family stayed that way.

Image via Fox

GOD I love and hate these
episodes. I love them because me and Scully finally get our bae back, but hate
because we both have to go through finding him dead and watching him get buried.
These episodes are a rollercoaster of emotions that I hate to ride; how on
earth Scully didn’t end up losing it I don’t know. She got extremely close.

And then even when we get Mulder
back, Carter and the team wrote him so out of character that it hurts even
more. Stylistically, these episodes are fantastic. They definitely harken back
to the old X-Files, but it just isn’t
fair that this was the way in which fans and Scully herself had Mulder given
back to them.

Even though Duchovny later said
that he had been happy to see Mulder depart from the FBI in the way he did in Three Words, it still hurts, man.

Image via Fox

I don’t like season eight, but I hate season nine. However, there are a
handful of episodes that are actually pretty decent, with ‘John Doe’ being one
of them.

I do like Doggett, I have done
since season eight. It’s probably because Robert Patrick is one of my favourite
actors, but Doggett is a nice character. I don’t hate Doggett and Reyes at all
as characters, it’s just Carter’s way of using them to try and replace Mulder and
Scully.

But here, ‘John Doe’ is an
episode that enables the audience to get a glimpse at Doggett in an unknown
environment – thanks Gilligan – with no memory of who he is and how he got
there. It isn’t until Scully and Reyes finally find him that the episode
crosses an extreme emotional barrier for Patrick, in which Reyes has to remind
him that he lost his son and Doggett has to relive through the pain, whilst
tearfully admitting that he is happy to have all of his memories even though he
still has the bad ones.

Image via Fox

Carrying on from ‘John Doe’, ‘Release’
is also another episode that explores Doggett’s past and brings a sense of
closure for his character; even though we haven’t spent much time with him to
form a bond with his emotions as we did with Mulder and Samantha.

‘Release’ allows Doggett to find
out what actually happened to his son Luke through a link established by a man
named Nicholas Regali, a member of an organized crime ring associated with Bob
Harvey, the only suspect in the case of Luke’s murder.

The episode itself is extremely
heavy and emotionally powerful, and I truly commend Patrick’s performance here
as we’ve only known about Luke few a dozen episodes through passing
conversations. It’s here that we see how much that this loss effects Doggett,
and even Patrick himself. Director Kim Manners had to guide Patrick along as he
“could think of no worst nightmare for a parent than to lose their child.”

Image via Fox

‘The Truth’ serves as the finale
for season nine, also featuring the return of Duchovny (FINALLY) as well as
other recurring characters in the series. It originally served as the finale
for the series, until it returned in January of this year. ‘The Truth’
concluded many of the shows story-arcs, whilst also introducing an idea that
had already been brewing since Fight the
Future; the impending doom of an extra-terrestrial invasion in December of
2012.

Even though ‘The Truth’ does
conclude some arcs, there isn’t a
real sense of closure. Mulder and Scully are left childless after Scully having
to give their son up for adoption to keep him safe, we don’t really know what
the super soldiers and the black oil was all about, and we’re introduced to a
whole new story arc in the form of the impending alien invasion.

The greatest part of this episode,
however, is the callbacks and references to earlier episodes; especially
regarding scenes including Mulder and Scully. The beautiful final scene between
Mulder and Scully in a hotel room in Roswell mirrors their first hotel scene
together in the pilot; both in staging, cinematography and dialogue. It
showcases how far Mulder and Scully have come together; the trials and
tribulations that they have had to endure to get to this point, and that they’d
do it all over again if it meant ending up with their perfect opposite.

If there’s anything to take from
seasons eight and nine, it’s that you can’t have The X-Files without Mulder and Scully. No matter if you keep one of
them in their, they’re a package deal.

Image via Fox

Ah, season ten. How I love half
of thee. Funnily enough the half that Carter didn’t write. I sound so bitter
but the ones Carter wrote are exactly like seasons eight, nine and I Want to Believe. When it’s the classic
writers taking helm of the episodes, we get the classic X-Files.

And ‘Founder’s Mutation’ is no
different. It makes the season’s opener ‘My Struggle’ feel like a distant
memory, and enhances the show back to its former glory. The X-Files are now
re-opened and Mulder and Scully are back investigating weird shit like they’d
never left.

‘Founder’s Mutation’ links on to
the shows larger mythology regarding The Syndicate and their larger project of
colonizing earth with alien-human hybrids. This brings up memories and feelings
regarding Mulder and Scully’s son William; leading to the two reminiscing on
what their lives would have been like if William wasn’t put up for adoption.
Both Mulder and Scully have fantasies as to what they would be doing with
William, with both ultimately ending in a nightmare: for Scully, it’s William
having alien, lizard like eyes and for Mulder, it’s finding William being
abducted by aliens in a similar situation to what he witnessed with his sister.

Image via Fox

Ah, season ten. How I love half
of thee. Funnily enough the half that Carter didn’t write. I sound so bitter
but the ones Carter wrote are exactly like seasons eight, nine and I Want to Believe. When it’s the classic
writers taking helm of the episodes, we get the classic X-Files.

And ‘Founder’s Mutation’ is no
different. It makes the season’s opener ‘My Struggle’ feel like a distant
memory, and enhances the show back to its former glory. The X-Files are now
re-opened and Mulder and Scully are back investigating weird shit like they’d
never left.

‘Founder’s Mutation’ links on to
the shows larger mythology regarding The Syndicate and their larger project of
colonizing earth with alien-human hybrids. This brings up memories and feelings
regarding Mulder and Scully’s son William; leading to the two reminiscing on
what their lives would have been like if William wasn’t put up for adoption.
Both Mulder and Scully have fantasies as to what they would be doing with
William, with both ultimately ending in a nightmare: for Scully, it’s William
having alien, lizard like eyes and for Mulder, it’s finding William being
abducted by aliens in a similar situation to what he witnessed with his sister.

Image via Fox

I LOVE THIS EPISODE.

There is really no point of me
writing something here; I love every single thing about this episode. Every.
Single. Thing. Heavy on in-jokes and Easter eggs, it’s a classic X-Files episode in the modern era,
Duchovny and Anderson look like they are having the time of their lives, and
Rhys Darby is fucking hilarious as Guy Mann.

I’m obviously going to get into
much deeper detail regarding my insane love for this episode once I get to it
in the rewatch, but I brief I really couldn’t have asked for anything more when
it came to producing an episode like this. Thank you, Darin Morgan. Thank you.